"We always see new technology every month in the computer biz, so why did it take so long to revolutionize the mouse? You should all be familiar with the rubber ball mice, as most of us still use them today. The old rubber ball method has undergone vast improvement and many design alterations, but still left us with the same basic idea. They run around our mouse pads collecting dirt which we end up cleaning out once a month, or once a week if your like me! There have been mouse pads to prevent the collection of dirt, but that just saves you the trouble of cleaning it often. Why not prevent this altogether? Now Microsoft, on the leading edge of technological improvements with software and hardware, have been the first to release a mouse using a optical laser to sense position and movement. This kind of technology has been around for a relatively long time, in technology years anyway, but Microsoft was the first to implement it into this new, useful way that did not require a special mousepad."